One of the root causes of disengaged employees is what we call “organizational hypocrisy” … where organizations say one thing but do another.

They say that employees are their greatest asset, but axe them without reservation as soon as the economy sours.

They say that the customer is number one, but don’t even measure customer satisfaction.  Worse yet, they don’t confront the brutal facts about their delivery performance issues because fixing the problem will cost too much.

They say one thing in their core values, but the resource allocation decisions say another.

They say that teamwork is essential to success … and even take the management team to a ropes course, but the executive bonus plan rewards only individual performance.

They preach excellence, but practice mediocrity.

Frankly, employees are rightfully cynical.  They witnessed so much dysfunctional behavior that they tune out the words.  It is just executive blah-blah-blah.

If you are serious about building a high-performance organization, focus more on your actions than your words.

“Second only to your people, your information is your most important asset.”  EMC Corporate Overview

Based on this idea, it stands to reason that information about your most important asset – your people – is the most important information to have.  Therefore, the employee engagement number is the most important number on your Dashboard.

The research is clear and overwhelming.  Companies with high employee engagement outperform their competitors.  The Best Places to Work awards are based on a nationwide survey of over 4,500 organizations.  Winners are simply the organizations with the highest employee engagement score.  Winning the award produces tremendous benefits, including:

• Increased retention by reducing the “grass is greener” turnover, which in turn reduces costs.
• Increased quantity of job applications – winners receive 7 times the number of job applications, which means that winners get to select the best applicants from a much broader pool.
• Increased quality of applicants, since the best people want to work for the best places.

Achieving these benefits requires a systematic approach … and a willingness to confront the brutal facts.

The Shift Points blog is designed for Fast Lane leaders who want to leave their competitors in the dust.

Shift Your Thinking … Accelerate Your Results.